Patricia Risso
Professor • Asia

Profile
Professor Risso teaches courses on the Middle East, Islam (intellectual history), Islam in Europe, India during British rule and a survey course on Asian civilizations. Risso also offers independent readings courses for graduate students who wish to study some aspect of the Middle East or India as part of a minor field in Asian History. Since joining the UNM faculty in 1986, she has also worked closely with numerous undergraduates on a variety of Honor’s thesis topics relating to Asia and the Middle East. Currently, she is working on piracy and hostage-taking in the Indian Ocean.
Education
B.A. in History, Bryn Mawr College, 1972
M.A. in Islamic History, McGill University, 1976
Ph.D. in Islamic History, McGill University, 1982
Research
Middle East, South Asia, Islam; cross cultural contacts in western Indian Ocean, 1500-1800; interplay of Islamic and customary law.
Selected Publications
"India and the Gulf: Encounters from the mid-Sixteenth to the Mid-Twentieth Centuries," Lawrence G. Potter, ed., The Persian Gulf in History. Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
“Cross-Cultural Perceptions of Piracy,” Journal of World History (2001).
Merchants of Faith: Muslim Commerce and Culture in the Indian Ocean. Croom Helm and St. Martin's Press, 1995.
“Indian Muslim Legal Status, 1964-1986,” Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (1992).
Awards
National Endowment for the Humanities, invited consultant for “World History Institute,” held at Department of History, The State University of New York, Fredonia, June, 1998.
Courses
251 Traditional Eastern Civilizations
252 Modern Eastern Civilizations
482 The Raj: India During British Rule
386 Islamic Middle East to 1800
387 Modern Middle East from 1800
481 Islam
666 Islam in Europe

